Esther 3

The Biblical book of Esther,
written in the fourth or third century BCE, describes how a Jewish woman
marries to the Persian king Ahasverus (Xerxes)
and protects, as queen, her people when a courtier named Haman attempts
to destroy the Jews. The Jews still commemorate their rescue during the
Purim festival.

The historicity of the story
has been questioned with sound arguments. No queen with this name is known
from other sources, for example, and the names of two of the protagonists,
Esther and Mordecai, look suspiciously like the names of the Babylonian
gods Ištar
and Marduk. On the other hand, the story is dated to the third year of
Xerxes (483/482 BCE), immediately after a serious crisis in Babylonia
(the revolt
of BÍl-šim‚nni
and Šamaš-eriba),
and many details betray knowledge of the Achaemenid
royal palace in Susa.

The translation of the short
version is offered here in the Revised Standard Version.

After
these things King Ahasverus promoted Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha,
and advanced him and set his seat above all the princes who were with him. And
all the king's servants who were at the king's gate bowed down and did
obeisance to Haman; for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai
did not bow down or do obeisance. Then
the king's servants who were at the king's gate said to Mordecai, "Why
do you transgress the king's command?"[1]

And when they spoke to him day after day and he would not listen to them,
they told Haman, in order to see whether Mordecai's words would avail;
for he had told them that he was a Jew. And
when Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow down or do obeisance to him, Haman
was filled with fury. But
he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone. So, as they had made known
to him the people of Mordecai, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the
people of Mordecai, throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasverus.

In
the first month, which is the month of Nisan,
in the twelfth year of King Ahasverus [474/473],
they cast Pur, that is the lot, before Haman day after day; and
they cast it month after month till the twelfth month, which is the month
of Adar.[2] Then
Haman said to King Ahasverus, "There is a certain people scattered abroad
and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom; their
laws are different from those of every other people, and they do not keep
the king's laws, so that it is not for the king's profit to tolerate them. If
it please the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed, and I will
pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who have charge
of the king's business, that they may put it into the king's treasuries."

So the king took
his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman the Agagite, the son
of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. And
the king said to Haman, "The money is given to you, the people also, to
do with them as it seems good to you."

Then the king's
secretaries were summoned on the thirteenth day of the first month [3],
and an edict, according to all that Haman commanded, was written to the
king's satraps and to the governors over all the provinces and to the princes
of all the peoples, to every province in its own script and every people
in its own language; it was written in the name of King Ahasverus and sealed
with the king's ring. Letters
were sent by couriers to all the king's provinces, to destroy, to slay,
and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day,
the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and
to plunder their goods.

A copy of the document
was to be issued as a decree in every province by proclamation to all the
peoples to be ready for that day. The
couriers went in haste by order of the king, and the decree was issued
in Susa
the capital. And the king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city of
Susa was perplexed.

Note 1:
The Greek version of Esther explains this refusal by pointing
out that Mordecai, as a Jew, felt religious scruples; however, doing obeisance
by bowing (proskynesis)
for anyone who was not the king, was forbidden anyhow. Ahasverus has broken
his own Persian laws.

Note 2:
The pur was some sort of oracle. By casting the lot, the Persians tried
to find a good day to destroy the Jews.